THE CONTENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Perception, Attention, and Phenomenology

May 27-30, 2001
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina, USA

Consciousness has rich and diverse contents, from sensory experiences
such as vision, audition, and bodily sensations such as pain, to
non-sensory aspects such as volition, emotion, memory, and thought. All
of these conscious states can be seen as part of the contents of
consciousness. Furthermore, most conscious states can be seen as having
representational contents of their own, in the sense that they are about
something: objects and states of affairs in the world, or states of our
own body. The contents of these states are all presented to us, in
William James's powerful metaphor, as part of a "stream of
consciousness".

The contents of consciousness raise many important questions: Just how
rich is the content present in conscious experience? Do the contents of
attention exhaust the contents of consciousness, or is there
consciousness outside attention? What is the neural basis of the
representation of conscious content? How does consciousness of our own
body differ from consciousness of the external world? What methods are
available to monitor the contents of consciousness in an experimental
context? What is the relationship between consciousness and
representation? All of these questions have been actively discussed in
recent years by neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, and other
researchers.

The fifth conference of the Association for the Scientific Study of
Consciousness will bring together researchers from numerous disciplines
to discuss the contents of consciousness through an intensive series of
workshops, plenary lectures, symposia, paper presentations and poster
contributions extending over four days from May 27 through May 30, 2001.
The meeting will take place in Durham, North Carolina, on the campus of
Duke University.

Topics that will be addressed include (among many others):

* The relationship between attention and consciousness
* The neural basis of attention and consciousness
* The neural mechanisms of conscious representation
* Current directions in inattentional and change blindness
* The relationship between conscious and unconscious contents
* Bodily awareness and pain perception
* The relationship between consciousness, qualia, and representation
* First-person and third-person methods for monitoring conscious contents

Although the main theme of ASSC5 is "The Contents of Consciousness"
and plenary sessions will deal largely with this theme, speakers in
concurrent sessions are invited to talk on any topic relevant to the
scientific study of consciousness. Submissions that include
physiological, psychological, philosophical, and computational
perspectives are welcome.

Submissions for both posters and talks will be accepted. Any
person may present only one submission, but may be co-author on
several. The first author should be the presenting author. Oral
presentations will be limited to 20 minutes, to be followed by a
10-minute discussion period.

Plenary lectures, symposia, concurrent sessions, and poster sessions
will all be held on the Duke University campus.

This is also a call for workshops. One of the aims of this meeting is
to allow researchers to gain a background in areas that they may know
little about. Towards that end a number of workshops are planned. Some
participants in the conference would be very interested in learning
about technical matters such as fMRI or other important brain imaging
techniques. Others might enjoy a seminar on a philosophical topic. As
with papers, the focus of all workshops should naturally fit within
the overall theme of the conference. A non-exclusive list of possible
topics might include:

Workshops will be held in parallel sessions on the morning and
afternoon of May 27th. Each workshop is intended to last approximately
three hours. The sizes of workshops will vary between a minimum of 10
to a maximum of around 25 people. Workshops that do not achieve the
minimum enrollment of 10 people will not be offered. Workshop
presenters will receive a $500 honorarium.

All submissions must include the following information in the order
listed below and MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY. Please note that there
are two different addresses for paper and workshop proposal submissions:

*** Note: Please reserve these addresses exclusively for submission of
abstracts. Questions concerning the conference can be sent to:

All meetings and poster presentations will be held at the Duke
University campus. Accommodations will be available both at Durham
hotels at discounted rates and at air-conditioned single/double Duke
dormitories.

Please check the website for information about accommodation options, as
well as for further information about the paper and poster submissions;
registration and submission forms; information about travel to Durham,
North Carolina; and information about the scientific Program of the
meeting.

Tune in frequently -- the site will be constantly updated to reflect the
latest information. To inquire about any aspect of the conference,
please write to the local organizer at: